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The use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to characterize health and environmental effects of wildland fire smoke
Citation:
Gullett, B., J. Aurell, D. Damby, Ian Gilmour, AND T. Hoefen. The use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to characterize health and environmental effects of wildland fire smoke. USGS Innovation Center Project Review, NA, Virtual, January 20, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation concerns the environmental health issue caused by open fires, specifically wildland fires. The project scope covers development of methods to sample and characterize emissions from wildland fires using samplers and sensors aboard unmanned aircraft systems, UAS, or "drones." UAS-based sampling of emissions is a novel application, spurred on by developments in UAS and sensor technology. This presentation would be of interest to scientists looking to apply use of UAS for air quality characterization as well as those working on health and environmental exposure issues caused by wildland fires.
Description:
Wildland fires produce smoke plumes that prompt severe regional-scale air quality concerns. These plumes are well known to contain high levels of respirable particles and organic compounds such as formaldehyde and furans. They may also contain, depending upon the vegetation type, burn intensity, and underlying soil mineralogy, ash with caustic alkali salts and various heavy metals or metalloids, and plume-entrained soil minerals such as asbestos fibers or crystalline silica, all of which can be detrimental to health (Plumlee et al., 2014). More recent work has also documented the increase in airborne organics which are released and entrained by the plume (Kobziar et al., 2021). The advent of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) technology allows unprecedented access to wildland fire smoke plumes, eliminating personnel and equipment hazards during sample collection and logistical challenges of predicting plume movement that restrict ground-based work. When combined with the concurrent development of lightweight samplers and sensors, UAS-borne instrumentation allows us to obtain heretofore inaccessible data and samples. Obtaining real-time data fills significant observational gaps of plume composition, atmospheric reactions, and dispersion/deposition. Airborne sampling of the plume permits toxicity testing on particulate matter (PM) representative of real exposures, allowing us to avoid the use of ground-collected samples, which are typically modified in the environment. These data are critical for understanding the health impacts of PM and aerosols released by wildfires and prescribed burns. This effort reported here is sampling wildland fires to 1) characterize the plume composition, 2) collect PM for toxicity and characteristics testing, and 3) determine the health implications of the emissions. Samples and data taken from prescribed fires using USGS UAS flights in Florida and Kansas are discussed.
